Peter Cox MBE's Posts - National Theatre Wales Community2024-03-28T21:05:56ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCoxhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2986185237?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=10olkit6yxrcr&xn_auth=noRIP Roger Woostertag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2022-10-16:3152760:BlogPost:3407042022-10-16T21:02:00.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
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<div class="" dir="auto"><div class="x1iorvi4 x1pi30zi x1l90r2v x1swvt13" id="jsc_c_bp"><div class="x78zum5 xdt5ytf xz62fqu x16ldp7u"><div class="xu06os2 x1ok221b"><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Very sad to learn that Roger Wooster, has died.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Roger was a great contributor to the arts in mid Wales for many years, working tirelessly in Theatre in Education and…</div>
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<div class="" dir="auto"><div class="x1iorvi4 x1pi30zi x1l90r2v x1swvt13" id="jsc_c_bp"><div class="x78zum5 xdt5ytf xz62fqu x16ldp7u"><div class="xu06os2 x1ok221b"><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Very sad to learn that Roger Wooster, has died.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Roger was a great contributor to the arts in mid Wales for many years, working tirelessly in Theatre in Education and Community Touring Theatre, including with Theatr Powys and as a CARAD Trustee. Roger was very proud to have set up the Performing Arts Course at Coleg Powys in Newtown, and of his subsequent role as Senior Lecturer at University of Wales, Newport. His published work on TIE, access and inclusion and modern acting are highly regarded and he had a significant impact on the lives of many young people.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Anyone who took part in Y Delyn Golledig – The Lost Harp, the Rhayader & District Community Play, will remember his commanding and powerful performance in the role of Sober John.</div>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Rest in Peace Roger.</div>
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</div>Classy actor diestag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2012-09-27:3152760:BlogPost:1351612012-09-27T19:04:25.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
<p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">Actor Herbert Lom, best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95.</p>
<p>The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau's irritable boss.</p>
<p>Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid.</p>
<p>His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on…</p>
<p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">Actor Herbert Lom, best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95.</p>
<p>The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau's irritable boss.</p>
<p>Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid.</p>
<p>His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.</p>
<p>One of the greats.</p>Great Comedy Actor and Writer diestag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2012-07-04:3152760:BlogPost:1272122012-07-04T11:38:47.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
<p>The great Eric Sykes has just passed away.</p>
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<p>Stop the clocks, dodge that pane of glass, duck under that plank.</p>
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<p>Heaven just got funnier!</p>
<p>The great Eric Sykes has just passed away.</p>
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<p>Stop the clocks, dodge that pane of glass, duck under that plank.</p>
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<p>Heaven just got funnier!</p>Playwright Shelagh Delaney diestag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2011-11-21:3152760:BlogPost:956732011-11-21T23:10:05.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
<p>Sad news coming out that one of Britain's most influential women playwrights of the past sixty years has died. </p>
<p>Her well known play A Taste of Honey played on Broadway and in the West End before being made into an award winning film directed by Tony Richardson with wonderful performances from Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham and Murray Melvin.</p>
<p>The play and film had a tremendous impact and resonance at the time- a beautiful tender story featuring a young woman falling pregnant, being…</p>
<p>Sad news coming out that one of Britain's most influential women playwrights of the past sixty years has died. </p>
<p>Her well known play A Taste of Honey played on Broadway and in the West End before being made into an award winning film directed by Tony Richardson with wonderful performances from Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham and Murray Melvin.</p>
<p>The play and film had a tremendous impact and resonance at the time- a beautiful tender story featuring a young woman falling pregnant, being befriended by a young gay man and setting up home together. All these years later this may not sound particularly earth shattering but at the time was truly groundbreaking.</p>
<p>Delaney wasn't only leading the way for many women playwrights who followed - she inspired many of us from the North who found ourselves watching characters in streets we recognised with accents we understood in lives that felt like our own.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Life as Writer in Residence with No Fit State Circustag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2010-09-09:3152760:BlogPost:409242010-09-09T22:00:53.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">No Fit State Circus</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Parklife Pontardawe: For photo’s visit… <a href="http://nofitstate.org/parklife/?cat=10">http://nofitstate.org/parklife/?cat=10…</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">No Fit State Circus</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Parklife Pontardawe: For photo’s visit… <a href="http://nofitstate.org/parklife/?cat=10">http://nofitstate.org/parklife/?cat=10</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Six Blogs by Writer in Residence, Peter Cox</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 1)</span></b> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><b><u>Six Feet Under in Pontardawe</u></b></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Views of the day: Saturday in Pontardawe</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Parklife’s Open House afternoon brought talents galore and serious skill sharing between the NFS company and
various community groups and individuals.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Themes for the day being explored with visitors: Creation and Destruction</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We have been told:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The area where the show will be played is by the river. On the flood plain. Once there were
water meadows here. Fields of wildflowers and Irises. On nearby<br />
hills there were slag heaps. Spoil heaps from the mines and industrial<br />
workings. They were removed but the spoil had to go somewhere.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It was laid over the meadows to raise the flood plain.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The forgotten flowers lie six feet under.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Images of war come to mind. The Somme. The flower of youth.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Today the flower of South Wales youth came as sports acrobats and youth circus. Trampolinists came
from NFS community circus. Serious levels of skills and commitment on<br />
display.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thrown sky high. Bouncing sky high. Free runners leaping over caravans. Globe
walking kids. Home schooled kids on slack rope and tight wire.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Megan Jenkins came all the way from Painscastle in Radnorshire for a circus themed birthday picnic.
(We think she left her cardi’ – she was so pumped up with adrenaline and<br />
achievement when she left she probably still hasn’t noticed.) She is now<br />
twenty four and has never done any circus workshops before. Today she met<br />
the trapeze and flew. Today she met the hoop and hooped.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then there were the guerilla gardeners who thought the water meadows could be reclaimed by people ’seed
bombing’ the ground – six feet over where the sleeping irises and wildflowers<br />
lie – six feet under.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There was talk of the destruction caused by the natural gas pipeline crossing Wales. Echoes of
BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Slag heaps left in the<br />
unquenchable quest for energy… oil and natural gas… questions<br />
marks over planning permission and deals with councils…</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And photos of rock balance sculptures on beaches. Improbable and impossible feats of beauty.
All day human beings brought this place alive with improbable and impossible<br />
balances and random acts of beautiful human sculptures – living, dynamic<br />
bouncing off steel, cloud flying and inspiring visiting children to<br />
dream.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then two sides of one coin. One man tells me the best thing for the community was when Tesco
came. Voices from Carmarthen visiting for a family day out doing circus<br />
stuff tell me the most destructive thing that has happened there was when Tesco<br />
came.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then there were the new words we learned. The young street dancers who will be working with us
arrive tomorrow. We’ve been testing the new vocabulary that we’ll<br />
need. There’s locking and popping and rippling and whacking and jacking<br />
and vogueing.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There’s been talk of the Mythical kingdom of Matalan where the glorious Queen Ikea reigns supreme.
There’s been site swap mathematics from the jugglers. And talk of walls<br />
and the rules of the spectacular game Airball have been rewritten.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We were visited by four miniature shorthaired red Daschunds – Cissie and Tilly and Dylan and Woody.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And where the water meadows once were people now walk and cycle and watch otters and and kingfishers and
dippers. They say the place is beautiful and it is.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Circles and cycles of creation and destruction.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And next Saturday, show day, young Ilana, one of our visiting young sports acrobats will be nine years
old. What a birthday treat. Performing live onstage in Parklife<br />
with No Fit State.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Peter Cox. Writer in Residence. Parklife Pontardawe.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">ps please send mozzy repellent – the midges are fierce</span></p>
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<p><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 2) <u>‘We click our feet like Dorothy’</u></span></b></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Once upon a time The Makers of Dance Energy left their homes and followed a road with not a yellow brick in sight.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">They found a circus, but not in Kansas. They found another world in Pontardawe.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">They shared their skills with the cloud flyers and the lungers and the gimballers and the grungers.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Their teacher told them to…</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Remember, that all the middle part of you has been taken out.’</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">There was a barrage of instructions. ‘Boogaloo Five. Double, Point, Roll it in. Up, Cross, Down.
Step it back and the hand goes out.’ Then, red faced and breathless, ‘We<br />
click our feet like Dorothy’.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">One thing is sure. We don’t know what it is – but it’s not the Hokey Cokey.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Makers of Dance Energy have represented Wales at the ‘World Street and Hip Hop Championships’ in Poland and
Germany. They will be onstage with NFS in Parklife on Saturday 14<sup>th</sup>.<br />
Look out Pontardawe.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Today they tried ‘Crumping’ but the music wasn’t angry enough. (No one here, beside me, knows how their anger dance,
‘Crumping’, has a connection to this place – long before they were born.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And I only know because people shared stories in the sun with, yours truly, the NFS Roving Reporter. <br/></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told the family had lived on the farm for 200 years. Then the official from the National Coal Board came with a
compulsory purchase order. One hundred acres gone. Broke the old<br />
man’s heart. He’d left a request for when he died. To be buried<br />
overlooking his valley. Only, when he was gone, the view was not what he<br />
had planned. The view was Abernant. The colliery and the spoil, the<br />
haulage and the gear. Cycles of creation and destruction. After it<br />
closed in 1990 the ground was relaid. Orchids have begun to grow there<br />
again. Too late for the old man.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told the tin-plate towers could have been saved. They were ‘chimleys’ really, not towers as such. The
‘chimleys’ could have told a story. There could have been a park around<br />
them. The tin plate Works, though, held another tale. Munitions.<br />
Material for shell cases made there. World War Two. Images of war<br />
again. Creation and Destruction. Those ‘chimleys’ could have told a<br />
story.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Like the children used to do round here, playing ‘Crumping John’.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told that, once upon a time, this place was close to Equator. Honestly. There’s proof in a waterfall
up the road. They’ve put a path in and information and you can press a<br />
button and hear voices and the water cutting back has revealed a story locked<br />
in time and rock. There are special ferns here. And rare mosses.<br />
Clues in the mystery reveal this place was once Equatorial Rainforest.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Seems a long way from today’s pole (fitness) dancers who taught us their Gemini Tricks and Gecko lifts.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">More stories tumble through the day: there was a church on the hill since the 5<sup>th</sup> or 6<sup>th</sup>
century. Built on the site of a Pagan well. It had a Focus DIY job<br />
done on it by The Normans, but the Norman Tower is a bit wonky now.<br />
Flatpack church towers? Surely not! Then the Victorians improved it in<br />
the way they did. But in the eighties the threat of the bulldozer<br />
came. ‘Who needs this old thing? Let’s knock it down.’ Then<br />
200 people said ‘no’. And a benefactor said ‘yes’ and bought the<br />
place. It’s now a centre where all kinds of things can happen. But<br />
not alcohol. Not marriages. No religious service of any<br />
denomination.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Llangiwg Church. A new well of human endeavour to be drawn from and drunk deeply. It’s lucky that the water
diviners came and found the source.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And near Carmarthen two children planted a garden and grew huge cucumbers and spinach, tomatoes, potatoes and beans.
An act of creation: to plant seeds, to tend them, to watch things grow<br />
then to pick them, then to eat them. Look out Tesco: two less<br />
customers.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And as for ‘Crumping John’ meets Crumping Anger Dance?</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Well, the old man, buried overlooking the pit, would have known the ‘Crumping John’ generation of children. Making
their own entertainment. Their own fun. Going from door to<br />
door. Acting out stories. Getting ‘paid’ with drinks or sweets.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Whatever the story they acted out they called the whole adventure, ‘Crumping John’.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Just imagine it. On a dark and moonless night, down Abernant way… maybe the stamping sound you can hear is the
old man in his grave… anger dancing… tearing at his shroud… the<br />
scream of drill in rock his anger music…</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">All these tales were told in the shadow of Elephant Rock. <br/></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And the lesson of the day: Remember that, ‘every field has a different identity’.</span></p>
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<p><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 3) <u>Flam, Flamadiddle and Rough</u></span></b></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Or: Secret Languages from behind the fence.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ignore the rain get on with job.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Saturday and Sunday were the Open House days. Public stories. Pontardawe Stories.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Today we go behind the fence. There’s a whole secret world here. Like a secret society with its own
language. In fact, more than one language. And so many names for<br />
things? Every discipline has its secret words.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Come show time on Saturday night there are things that you might see from the lists below. There are things you
might hear. <br/></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">ust to get us to Saturday there are things I have heard from my privileged position here. No longer Roving
Reporter. Now, in amongst the wonder. Witnessing the pain behind<br />
the magic. Being stirred in the alchemy of creation. Learning new<br />
languages by the hour.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">(By the way, ‘Flam, Flamadiddle and Rough’ are not the latest cute characters in a new Pixar movie! It’s the
secret language drummers speak, but only when teaching the drums. At<br />
other times they may say… ‘the one that goes, duh duh de de de<br />
duh’.) <br/></span></p>
<p><br/></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">But I digress.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Quiz time: <em>(Want a clue before you start? Well, maybe there are clues in the questions.)</em></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question One:</u> Who might bounce these words around?</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Triffus, Fliffus, Birani, Cat Twist and Kaboom?”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question Two:</u> Who might throw these words around?</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Burke’s Barrage, 5551 on triples, Slapbacks, Chinrolls, Pulldowns, Pancakes, Mills’ Mess, Rubenstein’s Revenge, Dancey’s
Devilment’, Takeouts, Chops, Tomahawks and Thunder Shower.”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question Three:</u> Who might hang about using these words?</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Angel Lines, Meat Hook, Gallopette, Toe Hang, Heel Hang, Meat Hook trying to split it, ‘I’ve done it on a single’.”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question Four:</u> Who might direct these words to someone?</strong></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“It could be someone who is searching. The ‘chaser’ and the ‘chased’. The walls could become
personal barriers. Who is putting up the barrier? Themselves? It’s<br />
a matrix moment. It’s about turning the emotional story into a<br />
spectacle.”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question Five:</u> Who might try and trick their way around these words?</strong></span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“A barrier becomes a way to liberate yourself with movement. You can be as free as you want. It’s about
pushing public acceptance.”</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Scoot. Valdez. Hypertwist. Parafuso.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Corkscrew (Cork), Double Cork, Triple Cork, Hypercork. Kroc!” <em>(Keep up dear reader. A ‘Kroc’ is only
a ‘Cork’ done backwards! But you knew that really, didn’t you?)</em></span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Cheat 7 Scoot Hypercork Missleg Full.”</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Hook Aerial Grandmasterswipe 4 Swing Triple Flash.”</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Cheat 9 Double Hook Sideswipe Raiz Shuriken Cork.”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Question Six:</strong></span></u> <strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">Who might be inspired the following ‘insane people’?</span></strong></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Vellu, Guthrie, Anis, Munks, Prodigy, Team Asura.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Question Seven:</u> No clues for this one.</strong></span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“If the drop is here, you jump forward and do a back somersault travelling forward in front of where you took off from
and landing lower down.”</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong>Question Eight, Question Nine, Question Ten: Who who who might…. Well, you get the gist…</strong></span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">“Rudi, Randy, Adolf, Miller, Killer, Thriller. (Hypothetically there’s a Spiller but it’s not been landed
yet. But it has been done on the Supertramp.) The Loser Flip, Kick<br />
the Moon, Imploder, Exploder, Kong Vault, Quasimodo, Dwell Time, Boston Mess,<br />
Siteswap 3, 42, 423, 441 (etc), Gatto’s Multiplex, Crashdive.<br />
Fifteen Minutes – grab a cup of tea.”</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Phew… and you thought your daily routine was a challenge!!</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>Answers:</u></strong> No Fit State Circus performers behind the fence including: Trampolinists,
Trickers, Free Runners, Jugglers, Aerialists and Parklife Director Orit<br />
Azaz. And for Questions 8,9 & 10 – all of the above.)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Maybe I’ll talk the riggers down from their Skyhooks tomorrow and take you into their mysterious world of words!</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the meantime I’m heading for my tent and hoping everything inside hasn’t turned into a giant sponge.</span></p>
<br />
<p><b> </b></p>
<br />
<p><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 4)</span></b> <b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Questions to ask your Granny</span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tuesday dawned on Parklife – as wet as Monday. Everything was sodden.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">By mid afternoon it was more like the Costa Del Pontardawe. Glorious blue sky. Hot sunshine. Spirits lifted above and
beyond the mountain tops.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tonight we begin with some questions you might hear behind the fence among the acrobats, the flyers, the carriers, the
unicyclists and the fire artists.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">(So if you have a Granny, ask her. If you are a Granny, ask a loved one.)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can you Lunge?’</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can you do a Flying Angel?’ ‘Can you Bunny Hop?’ ‘Can you do a Buzzsaw?’</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Can you do… a Butterfly, a Hyperloop, a Three Beat Weave, a Five Beat Weave, a Vertex?’ Granny…. ‘Can you do a Chinese
Suicide???’ (‘Not since I had that bout of Sciatica, my love.’)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">My Granny could do none of those things but she left school when she was twelve and went to work in a bakery.
And she made the best cakes ever for the rest of her life. And every Christmas<br />
she’d make a bath full of trifle. Now to us, her beloved grand children we<br />
thought the bath itself would be layered with deliciousness of all chemical<br />
kinds, colours and wobbliness! What was really in the bath, keeping cool, was<br />
little pot after pot after little dish of individual trifles.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">My Granny knew how to make magical tastes from whatever was in the cupboard.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I feel a bit like my Granny here in Pontardawe. We are slowly putting together a recipe for our show – but at the
same time, very aware we are still exploring what ingredients are in the<br />
larder.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tonight the fence was breached by local writers. Never mind all these street dancers and sports acrobats coming
through with their new fangled fangledness! It was time to walk the stage and<br />
talk with playwrights and theatre makers and to revel in the ancient timeless<br />
power of story, story metaphor and meaning.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">The sun was setting low over Pontardawe as they let their ideas and memories wander through the problems and possibilities
of creating a multi dimensional work of art in the corner of the recreation<br />
ground in this famous valley.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told we are not the first to play here. The Grammar School was once over there beyond what used to be the rugby
pitch and where our flyers fly used to be the girls’ hockey pitch. Once a year<br />
the girls played the boys at rugby and the girls played the boys at hockey. It<br />
appears the boys were gentlemen really because they would hand the ball to the<br />
girls. (Resisting the urge to scrimmage which, one assumes must have been<br />
allowed to come out on a Saturday night!) Whereas during the hockey game, more<br />
balls would be added to the game without people realising!</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">This was an exceedingly mild game compared to some they used to play locally.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">One right of passage for 7 to 10 year olds demanded that they sqeeze through the terrifyingly narrow gap between Elephant
Rock and the Mountain. Once puberty kicked in, (and you ‘filled out’) – you<br />
couldn’t squeeze through. I have a vision of an old woman trapped there… she<br />
was halfway through when puberty was reached and that was that – no way forward<br />
– no way back.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">But that game was so much less terrifying than the rest. Once, within a spit of black dust of here was ‘the ugliest square
mile on earth’.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">You couldn’t graze cattle there. They died from the sulphurous fumes.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told, ‘games were played in The Acid Dust’.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told, ‘they used to go and play on The Pollution.’</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">But the really serious game involved walking around the rim (about six inches wide from the collective memory) of…
(cue music… full of dread and danger…)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Toxic Pool! (They clearly breed them tough in this glaciated valley.)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And as for The Moving Mountain… well, what’s a mountain that’s on the move when you’ve survived The Acid Dust, The Pollution
and THE TOXIC POOL!!!</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">(Note for any would be tourists Googling Pontardawe as a possible holiday destination and wondering if there’s a
swimming pool. IT’S VERY HERE DIFFERENT NOW.)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Creation from Destruction.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">On a brighter note… ask your Granny about ‘The Monkey Parade’ that used to happen after church on a Sunday. Boys would
walk down one side of the street and girls down the other!</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">(Now, mixing words from behind our Circus fence with the Monkey Parade, we could provide ‘A Keeper’. The line and harness
that an aerialist might use when testing a new ‘zip wire’. To keep them alive.<br />
Can you imagine those Pontardawe kids of old needing a ‘Keeper’ before toddling<br />
around the edge of The Toxic Pool?)</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Which cues me in to another theme we’ve been exploring behind the fence. ‘Journeys.’</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was told about two hugely different journeys here today. One was during the Blitz when there was the three day fire
in Swansea thousands of refugees came to town.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">The other was when Adelina Patti, the greatest opera voice of her age, would come through town throwing coins to the
children.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">So when you’ve asked your Granny about who Miss Patti was here’s one last question for her.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Granny! What does Proprioception mean?’</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And when she says she doesn’t know, you can tell her…</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Nan. I know what it is… it’s the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Unlike the exteroceptive senses by which we perceive the outside world.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">And the interoceptive senses, by which we perceive the pain and movement of internal organs.</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Proprioception is a third distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally.</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the
body are located in relation to each other.’</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then she’ll say…</span></p>
<p><br/></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Oh, you mean the invisible awareness thing that acrobats and flyers and gymnasts use to prevent themselves from splatting
into the floor and ending up looking like a bath full of trifle.’</span></p>
<br />
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 5)</span></u></b> <b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><u>Thoughts from The Word Juggler’s Notebook</u></span></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">A writer’s notebook can be a fascinating thing to browse through… <span style="">
</span>(ask any psychiatrist!)</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">During this Parklife Pontardawe Residency I’m never far from my notebook… (Or, for that matter, from my translucent plastic camping mug,
with screw top lid, filled with my tipple of choice – green tea and mint - the<br />
colour of which makes it look like I’m carrying around a urine sample for a<br />
very sick animal!)</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">As I look back through my notes and gear up for the last push towards creating the ‘spoken text’ script
pieces for the fast looming show I find that during the week I’ve interviewed<br />
dozens of people locally including passers by, visitors to our open house<br />
workshops, company members, dog walkers, small boys on bikes through the Heras<br />
perimeter fencing etc…</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Amazingly I find I have nearly one hundred pages of hand scribbled notes. Liberally scattered amongst them are scores of little sketches –
story-telling through the magical medium of stick people. (To be honest, some of the physical<br />
exploratory work undertaken by Orit, our Director, and the Company this week<br />
has defied description in words at speed. <span style=""><br />
</span>A quick sketch has been the only way to get the dynamics and<br />
inter-relationships down as an aide-memoire.) <span style=""><br />
</span>Having written for many years for the screen as well as for the stage<br />
I’m no stranger to this kind of visual storytelling. Most people don’t realise that film scripts are often 80%<br />
description of pictures that tell story with the remaining 20% as<br />
dialogue. (Which makes sense of Alfred<br />
Hitchcock’s famous quote. “When the script is finished, and the dialogue added,<br />
the film is ready to shoot.)</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">One section in my notebook really stands out. Being a writer and
watching all our other artists involved in creative exchanges with local<br />
groups, I had the idea to try and set up an exchange with writers local to<br />
Pontardawe. </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Angie Dickinson from the Pontardawe Arts Centre magically set up a visit for Diana Griffiths, Carole
Hopkin and Derek Cobley who all came behind the scenes, watched us work, walked<br />
the stage and discussed all manner of things – from local history and stories<br />
to how to create emotion through spectacle in such a multi-layered performance<br />
style and environment. Diana was even moved<br />
when she got home to pen an extraordinary, oblique and poetic short playlet<br />
called Up We Go– inspired by her visit.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It was a fantastic treat to then be visited by Stan Barstow, an author international renown who will be
known to many through his novel, A Kind of Loving, a book often studied as a<br />
set text in school examinations. Due to<br />
rain it wasn’t possible for Stan to see us working on the stage but he came<br />
into the damp gloom of the Big Blue Tent and observed the development process –<br />
making his own quiet observations as the company walked through various<br />
sequences in a space a tenth of the size of the real ‘stage’ outside. Once again our conversations ranged from<br />
parallels in classical Greek drama to the many and various hidden craft<br />
techniques that writer’s use to mask the machinery of storytelling.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Unsurprisingly this meeting of minds with all the writer’s led to some more complex conceptual notes being
scribbled down in my book… </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I posed the question, <i>‘What will be left next week when the Circus is gone?’</i> Some snippets of thoughts
included…</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Everything that has ever existed, still exists. We just may no
longer have the physical evidence of it.’</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘We are limited on a timeline’.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Why only think about past lives? Why not think that I’m going to
be Cleopatra in a future life?’</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘Everything is a right of passage’.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">‘It can be… you are like guerrilla gardeners, planting seeds’.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">One other stand-out page in my notebook is altogether less cerebral or philosophical…</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Still poetic in its own way, however, but very much down to earth.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Living communally ‘behind the fence’ places everyone under an obligation to be thoughtful, caring, good
company, tolerant and as aroma-free as washing facilities and access to hot<br />
water allow.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the long days of tiredness, coldness and wetness a little good-natured banter can go a long way – seriously
lifting spirits and aiding morale. The<br />
creation of ‘private languages’ is nothing new – pretty much every walk of life<br />
has them. From Coal Miners to Ballet<br />
Dancers, they become a way of including people, a form of tribal marking<br />
through words or a membership of a secret society. As company members pass each other, busily intent on their work,<br />
just one new addition to this collectively created fluid language can raise a<br />
smile and become a spur to further invention. <span style=""><br />
</span>It some ways it can be seen as a symbol of trust. </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In scouring through my notebook for the most compelling notes that demand to be included in the spoken
text I find the scribbles related to the crew and company’s nick-names for each other that have begun to<br />
evolve over the week. For some reason,<br />
known only to my fevered left-field imagination, these nick-names found<br />
themselves going down as a commentary on a fictional No Fit State style horse<br />
race – loosely based on the Grand National. <span style=""><br />
</span>I offer no further comment, apologies or excuses… herewith the evidence, m’lud!</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoBodyText">“And they’re all safely over Becher’s Brook: it’s Major
Problem just a nose ahead of General Indifference. And Rambo on the rails, being edged out by Field Marshall<br />
Fog. And here comes General Overview<br />
just a nose ahead of Private Thoughts. And Private Dancer makes a move. And some fallers there. Private Parts has gone. And Private Wrong brought down The Crazy<br />
Chef. And here comes General Tomfoolery<br />
putting in a strong run. As we cross<br />
the Melling Road here come some of the back markers: Major Ambition and Captain Basket Weaver neck and neck with<br />
Colonel Calm and General Hospital… and Private Huge is a faller. Major Problem extends his lead but Martial<br />
Law’s just getting into his stride and the crowd are going wild. Private For Your Eyes Only - just ahead of<br />
Private And Confidential - just ahead by a nose from Private Members Bill and<br />
Private No Parking.</p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">And look at that… right back at the starting gate… General
Indecision can’t quite decide whether the race has started or not yet!”</span></i></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">All efforts now focus on getting the show on the stage and getting the right spoken text honed and
edited in time.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Wish us luck. (This is Private Dancer signing off. My next blog will be written after the show on Saturday – if I survive the fireshow!)</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blog 6) </span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the alchemy of memory and dreams – night becomes day, day becomes night.</span></u></b></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></u></b></p>
<br />
<h1>Written three hours after the show…</h1>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><u> </u></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">All the rigging gear down.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The totems still stand, awaiting their next magic.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Gimbal bows its head.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Breaths were held when August went ‘over the top’.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Korean Cradle, now just a frame. Waiting.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Road Boxes parked where they were left a speed. Waiting.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">One last flag hangs still, wet with dew. It’s 1.15am.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">A cold mist rises from the river.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Slack-rope, tight-wire, high-wire – all now places for early morning birds to land.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There is something ‘henge-like’ about this structure.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The seven totems around the steel grill ‘O’, the Donut Stage.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The steel is cold tonight and wet. We are lucky the weather
held. This is Wales in August! Autumn is coming early.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Behind me the big Blue Tent thumps to a bass beat. The adrenaline
of performance slowly drowning in canned Strongbow and Guinness.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dancing in muddy boots, in muddy wellies: the laughter ‘a
release’.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We went on a journey.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We faced our fears.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We overcame the obstacles.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Heras walls and the walls inside ourselves.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The cold steel inside all of us held firm.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">A new day will bring a new dawn to Pontardawe. Like ‘Guerilla
Gardeners’ we planted something here.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Guerilla Circus Artists, one step beyond. </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Turning pain into exhilaration.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Turning commitment into dream.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This does not feel like work, yet it is the hardest work.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">It feels like vocation.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">People left saying, the show was ‘Brilliant. Awesome.’</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">What is ‘brilliant’, ‘awesome’… is the work that makes the
show.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This is family. This is village. This is ethos and philosophy.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">A way of life.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Pontardawe sleeps.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Meanwhile, high above me amongst the rig… in the cold blue
light, against the cold night sky…</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Bats fly.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Aerialists extraordinaire.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sounding echoes of dreams.</span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <br/></span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">Peter Cox: Writer in Residence. Parklife – Pontardawe</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;">. <b><u>August 2010</u></b></span></p>Possible problems getting to see NTW in Aberdare tonight and Saturdaytag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2010-03-26:3152760:BlogPost:282552010-03-26T15:30:00.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
Just gearing up to head south to see Alan and John's show at the Coliseum Aberdare.<br/><br/>Note from their website that their may be severe traffic delays / congestion as the A4059 is closed from today for the next few days. That's the Aberdare By-Pass from the Tesco roundabout to Harriet Street, Trecynon.<br/><br/>Anyone travelling is advised to allow extra time.<br/>
Just gearing up to head south to see Alan and John's show at the Coliseum Aberdare.<br/><br/>Note from their website that their may be severe traffic delays / congestion as the A4059 is closed from today for the next few days. That's the Aberdare By-Pass from the Tesco roundabout to Harriet Street, Trecynon.<br/><br/>Anyone travelling is advised to allow extra time.<br/>Gulliver on tour: catch it if you cantag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2009-11-20:3152760:BlogPost:207702009-11-20T07:42:43.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
Saw the Hijinx Gulliver show last night in Llandrindod Wells. What a very good show. Funny. Entertaining. Moving. Great performances. Lovely concept and writing. Strong and imaginative direction. Excellent design and lighting. A great adventure and a fascinating journey into the human psyche and soul going via madness, creativity, politics, satire, love, paranoia, anxiety and the power of the imagination - all presented with consummate theatrical wit and confidence. A really good night out.
Saw the Hijinx Gulliver show last night in Llandrindod Wells. What a very good show. Funny. Entertaining. Moving. Great performances. Lovely concept and writing. Strong and imaginative direction. Excellent design and lighting. A great adventure and a fascinating journey into the human psyche and soul going via madness, creativity, politics, satire, love, paranoia, anxiety and the power of the imagination - all presented with consummate theatrical wit and confidence. A really good night out.Writer on Fourth Plinth tonighttag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2009-08-11:3152760:BlogPost:128812009-08-11T13:21:03.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
Many of you will be aware of the Anthony Gormley Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square. One & Other.<br />
<br />
None of you will yet be aware that I've been selected to spend one hour on the plinth between 3.00am and 4.00am Wednesday August 12th. (UK time)<br />
<br />
To be honest I didn't know myself until lunchtime yesterday when, at 36 hours notice, I was asked if I would take the place of someone who'd had to cancel their hour. (Clearly somebody with a lot more sense than me - someone who thought,…
Many of you will be aware of the Anthony Gormley Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square. One & Other.<br />
<br />
None of you will yet be aware that I've been selected to spend one hour on the plinth between 3.00am and 4.00am Wednesday August 12th. (UK time)<br />
<br />
To be honest I didn't know myself until lunchtime yesterday when, at 36 hours notice, I was asked if I would take the place of someone who'd had to cancel their hour. (Clearly somebody with a lot more sense than me - someone who thought, '3.00am !! - you've got to be joking'.)<br />
<br />
Anyway... insomniacs amongst you can watch the live streaming on the website... www.oneandother.co.uk<br />
<br />
Those of you with as little sense as me could even turn up in Trafalgar Square where you'll meet various odd members of family, friends and other associates who are rising to the challenge...<br />
<br />
If neither of the above suit you can always catch up at your leisure via the website... or...<br />
<br />
Check out the compilation programme broadcast on Sky Arts Channel 25 next Friday evening around 7 / 8 pm - although I can't guarantee I would be featured on that.<br />
<br />
By now you might be wondering what I'm going to do up there...<br />
<br />
Strange as it may seem - I'm going to be operating a puppet - a very beautiful puppet called Chaz. She is connected to a project that CARAD here in Rhayader is now partnered into and I've become one of a group of operators working with children here.<br />
<br />
As Chair of CARAD I have helped to establish a partnership with the London based street performance and carnival organisation Kinetika. During my time on the plinth I will introduce a very special visitor to Trafalgar Square - Chaz, a Champion created in community workshops in Brick Lane, East London.<br />
<br />
Chaz, a beautiful puppet, is hoping that many of her friends will come to see her explore the world from this unique point of view. Chaz is part of a project called...<br />
<br />
ImagiNation Our Nation.<br />
<br />
The project was initiated and incubated by Kinetika, created from an original idea by<br />
Ali Pretty. It is currently being led by a consortium of individuals and delivered by a<br />
range of partners across the UK. It could evolve into a standalone company.<br />
The group of producers is a collaboration of experts and practitioners within arts and<br />
culture and outdoor performance. The co-producers have expertise of large scale<br />
outdoor events, Olympic Ceremonies, carnival diversity, partnerships with schools and<br />
education, European mela, puppetry and circus. There is also cultural spread as well<br />
as artistic expertise.<br />
<br />
Our aim is to create and deliver an innovative project that helps broaden minds,<br />
discuss change, connect communities and leaves a legacy using the performing arts<br />
as a tool. We view it as essential that this initiative embraces and provides<br />
opportunities for communities to interact and connect with new media.<br />
We are passionate about engaging communities, and connecting diversity within<br />
communities and encouraging learning through conversation, creativity and largescale<br />
participatory outdoor performance.<br />
<br />
Imagination Our Nation Objective<br />
<br />
To deliver an exciting contemporary and collaborative national arts programme over<br />
the next three years and create a legacy of annual events, which exemplify the<br />
changing world and how we can embrace the future and equip ourselves with tools to<br />
deal with change through the outdoor performing arts.<br />
<br />
Imagination Our Nation Vision<br />
<br />
ION is an inclusive and engaging project that reaches, touches and captures the<br />
imagination of the youth of today – the citizens who will shape the future.<br />
Imagination Our Nation is a national conversation about who we as a nation<br />
want to be in the future.<br />
<br />
It is a social movement about innovation and change, engaging with the youth of today<br />
and encouraging them to shape their future, encouraging them to become champions,<br />
ensuring they achieve their personal best, and fulfil their potential. The story will take us on a journey that asks questions and seeks solutions, a journey<br />
in our communities, and a journey connecting communities, discovering facts from the<br />
past that will equip communities to live in the future.<br />
<br />
Imagination Our Nation Values<br />
<br />
Diversity, Collaboration, Passion, Celebration, Conversation<br />
<br />
What is Imagination Our Nation?<br />
<br />
‘The only nation I have now is my imagination’<br />
Derek Walcott<br />
<br />
Inspired by this simple, powerful idea, Kinetika has initiated Imagination Our Nation, a<br />
five-year project that will culminate in 2012 with a major event in East London.<br />
• GermiNation 2008 Sowing the seeds for the future - creating the project.<br />
• FasciNation 2009 Champions are born and wake up to a world of<br />
opportunities- engaging communities to discover their challenge.<br />
• DetermiNation 2010 The Champions embark on their journey -finding a<br />
solution to the challenge.<br />
• IllumiNation 2011 Teams of Champions work together to find solutions and<br />
create a gift.<br />
• ImagiNation 2012 Champions North, South, East, West and London lead a<br />
procession to East London for the collective sharing of the vision for the future.<br />
This finale culminates in a gathering of the regions and nations in a national<br />
celebration of our “Future Champions” and all of our communities.<br />
<br />
Potential Cultural Olympiad Links<br />
<br />
ION is a project exploring citizenship, inclusivity and diversity, how to become fit for<br />
the future, as well as leaving a legacy, it links very strongly with a number of the major<br />
strands of the values and vision of the Cultural Olympiad, which include:<br />
• to generate sustainable long-term benefits to our cultural life<br />
• to use creative industries to boost economic regeneration<br />
• to generate a legacy<br />
• to animate and humanise public spaces<br />
• to inspire young people<br />
<br />
The Future - What is the Imagination Our Nation Intention?<br />
<br />
The ambition is to walk the Puppets/Champions to London, bearing their gifts, which<br />
will take huge collaboration throughout the nation, demonstrating the emerging sense<br />
of collectivism – different communities belonging to one culturally diverse nation<br />
<br />
The Potential<br />
<br />
Imagination Our Nation has the potential to be a project that crosses over all elements<br />
of the Cultural Olympiad, as well as meeting many of the overall objectives for<br />
example creating a national presence, diverse community inclusion and engaging all<br />
ages of children.<br />
<br />
The Legacy<br />
<br />
To leave a legacy of ownership, engagement and collaboration and acceptance of<br />
change, to create a voice for change, by engaging the youth of today (school children,<br />
college and university students) as the citizens of the future in a conversation with<br />
their community.<br />
<br />
National Engagement - The Twelve Regions<br />
<br />
The intention is that ImagiNation is a national project that engages with communities<br />
in the nine regions London, Southeast, Southwest, East, East Midlands, West<br />
Midlands, North East, North West, Yorkshire & Humberside; and 3 nations Scotland,<br />
Wales and Ireland.<br />
<br />
* * *Performances in Harlech Castletag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2009-07-13:3152760:BlogPost:104042009-07-13T06:31:56.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
Tonight - 13th July and Tuesday 14th July.<br />
<br />
The Mabinogion presented by a cast of 300 teenagers (working with more than 20 artists) with brass and samba bands, interactive digital projections, puppetry, carnival, dance, storytelling, circus, magic and big spectacle.<br />
<br />
See www.theatrharlech for info. Starts at 8.30pm in Castle carpark. Running time about 90 minutes.<br />
<br />
(Interesting to see how many crossover points there are in this style of theatre with our NTW debates 'What Shows and Where' and…
Tonight - 13th July and Tuesday 14th July.<br />
<br />
The Mabinogion presented by a cast of 300 teenagers (working with more than 20 artists) with brass and samba bands, interactive digital projections, puppetry, carnival, dance, storytelling, circus, magic and big spectacle.<br />
<br />
See www.theatrharlech for info. Starts at 8.30pm in Castle carpark. Running time about 90 minutes.<br />
<br />
(Interesting to see how many crossover points there are in this style of theatre with our NTW debates 'What Shows and Where' and 'What should the NTW writing policy be'.)NTW members: live in Trafalgar Square???tag:community.nationaltheatrewales.org,2009-06-29:3152760:BlogPost:89022009-06-29T08:40:47.000ZPeter Cox MBEhttps://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profile/PeterCox
Anyone out there into a bit of high profile exhibitionism - sorry, live public art / performance? Got a cause to promote? Or a show?<br />
<br />
Heard of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square?<br />
<br />
I'm currently helping Artichoke (the producing company behind the Sultan's Elephant and Liverpool's Spider) to raise the profile in Wales of Anthony Gormley's One & Other project which they are also producing.<br />
<br />
If you've not picked up on it yet here's what it's all about...<br />
<br />
'This summer an extraordinary event…
Anyone out there into a bit of high profile exhibitionism - sorry, live public art / performance? Got a cause to promote? Or a show?<br />
<br />
Heard of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square?<br />
<br />
I'm currently helping Artichoke (the producing company behind the Sultan's Elephant and Liverpool's Spider) to raise the profile in Wales of Anthony Gormley's One & Other project which they are also producing.<br />
<br />
If you've not picked up on it yet here's what it's all about...<br />
<br />
'This summer an extraordinary event will take place as part of the Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth project. Every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days without a break, a different person will occupy the plinth in Traflagar Square. 2,400 participants from all corners of the UK, from every background and every community, will create an astonishing living portrait of the UK in 2009. Volunteers will be picked at random from those that apply, and the event will be seen all round the world via a 24 hour relay of the event website. Sky Arts will also broadcast a feature programme about the project each week.'<br />
<br />
Anthony Gormley says of his project, 'The idea is very simple. Through putting a person onto the plinth, the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol. In the context of Trafalgar Square with its military, valedictory and male historical statues, this elevation of everyday life to the position formerly occupied by monumental art allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society. It's about people coming together to do something extraordinary and unpredictable. It could be tragic but it could be funny'<br />
<br />
One person. One hour. One & Other.<br />
<br />
To find out more... and maybe even register visit<br />
<br />
www.oneandother.co.uk